Little Bee

Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

littlebeeby Chris Cleave

 

Wow, what a
ride and what great writing!  This is one of those novels that goes back
and forth between two characters, and starts in the present and refers
back periodically to the past, until everything that transpired becomes
clear.  It all involves Little Bee who escaped  from Nigeria, and Sarah
who had the misfortune to vacation in Nigeria with her husband.  Their
paths crossed and formed what will turn out to be a profound bond.
There are wonderful characters, including Sarah's son who insists on
dressing as Batman, and who we discover is fighting more 'Baddies' than
it appears to be at first.  Again, we experience that wonderful African
humor and innocence in regarding the new, modern world they find
themselves in.  It turns out that in her tiny village there actually was
a screening of "Top Gun", of all movies, whereupon she remarks, "About a
man who was in a great hurry, sometimes in jet planes and sometimes on
motorbikes and sometimes upside down"!
I highly recommend this one.  It's intricate, beautiful, illuminating,
depressing and yet, we all survive it to swim in the ocean so to speak.
Wow, what a ride and what great writing!  This is one of those novels that goes back and forth between two characters, and starts in the present and refers back periodically to the past, until everything that transpired becomes clear.  It all involves Little Bee who escaped  from Nigeria, and Sarah who had the misfortune to vacation in Nigeria with her husband. Their paths crossed and formed what will turn out to be a profound bond.  There are wonderful characters, including Sarah's son who insists on dressing as Batman, and who we discover is fighting more 'Baddies' than it appears to be at first.  Again, we experience that wonderful African humor and innocence in regarding the new, modern world they find themselves in.  It turns out that in her tiny village there actually was a screening of "Top Gun", of all movies, whereupon she remarks, "About a man who was in a great hurry, sometimes in jet planes and sometimes on motorbikes and sometimes upside down"! I highly recommend this one.  It's intricate, beautiful, illuminating, depressing and yet, we all survive it to swim in the ocean so to speak.